


Heart, Mind, and Will

by Schnikeys_Discuss (Schnikeys)



Series: Clockie's Meta [20]
Category: Hollow Knight (Video Games)
Genre: Analysis, Archived from radioactivesupersonic Blog, Character Analysis, Gen, Nonfiction, Originally Posted on Tumblr
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-23
Updated: 2019-03-23
Packaged: 2021-03-09 01:48:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,198
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27066640
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Schnikeys/pseuds/Schnikeys_Discuss
Summary: "The takeaway I get from the canon endings is that the Pale King was not a wholly positive influence for Hallownest, but neither was Radiance. The ultimate ending of the game viaEmbrace The Voidseems to be Ghost dethroning Radiance, and emerging as Hallownest’s new god, the Shade Lord- but, I’d argue, it’s entirely possible Ghost themselves isn’t destined to be a perfect ideal god, because that doesn’t exist, but they do have a leg up on I think either of their two predecessors."
Series: Clockie's Meta [20]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1974223
Kudos: 10





	Heart, Mind, and Will

**Author's Note:**

  * For [ClockworkRainbow](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ClockworkRainbow/gifts).



scatter44 asked: The Pale King was a very complicated guy, but I still side with him over The Riadeance. What about you?

* * *

I’m not so sure we’re supposed to necessarily side with either of them. The takeaway I get from the canon endings is that the Pale King was not a wholly positive influence for Hallownest, but neither was Radiance. The ultimate ending of the game via _Embrace The Void_ seems to be Ghost dethroning Radiance, and emerging as Hallownest’s new god, the Shade Lord- but, I’d argue, it’s entirely possible Ghost themselves isn’t destined to be a perfect ideal god, because that doesn’t exist, but they do have a leg up on I think either of their two predecessors.

Gods in the world of Hollow Knight are, simply, flawed entities. They’re individuals capable of flaws and bias. If there’s something that makes Ghost, at a glance, better suited than either the Radiance or the Pale King, it’s their interpersonal curiosity, but even then, Ghost is still an angry, traumatized child who, much of their ascension happens because, in rage, they want to carve themselves into the world and force it to acknowledge them.

My particular blend of hypothesis and headcanon is that the Pale King focused on the Mind, while Radiance focused on the Heart. Not only does the infection pulse and beat literally like a heart when it’s concentrated, but it resembles both cordyceps and veins. In a more figurative sense, though, it isn’t as if people aren’t thinking when they’re in the thrall of the Radiance- rather, they’re consumed by emotions. The people we see in the early stages who can still shake it off if prompted are people having dreams that affect them emotionally. Implicitly, how the Radiance started leaking out of Pure is by being able to act on their vulnerable emotions. Not Pure’s loyalty to their father, not their sense of duty- those things allowed them to hold against her for the longest time- but, no matter how much they tried not to, they grieved, they felt pain, they cried out for their father and for their siblings.

Radiance’s revenge against the Pale King, asserting herself as the rightful god of Hallownest, is immortalizing her rage and grief by burning it into the hearts of everyone around her. The entities most associated with her and her plague are the Traitor Lord (feeling weak, wanting to be stronger, cast out and feeling betrayed by his sisters), the Crystal Guardian (described as seeing “only light” and captivated by rage), and the Moss Prophet (described as luring people into forgetting their ‘duties’, seemingly with emotional appeal- promising succor from the plague, describing Radiance as warm and nurturing). The description for the Furious Vengefly even describes it as imparting _courage_ at the cost of the will. 

In this, we can see a glimpse of the possibly more benign, or at least neutral, Radiance who once shepherded the Moth Tribe (who clearly had a will of their own- they were able to choose to leave her, after all)- Radiance as the warm sun who emboldened others, connected to them emotionally. It was her subjects, and presumably, she herself, that pioneered the technique of manipulating and entering Dreams, of reading people’s innermost feelings. Presumably this is exactly how she knows how to siren song people in to the plague, how to haunt their dreams- that Sly might be lured in by dreaming of his students, but Bretta would sooner be captured by the idea that everyone forgot about her, is abandoning her down there.

But Radiance is, in effect, Heart that neglects both Mind and Will- she’s all emotions, and they run on full blast. Couldn’t get over the Moths’ betrayal, couldn’t stand that sense of being outshined by the King. How _dare_ you, how _dare_ you try to forget her, try to live without her, how _dare_ you cut these connections, these veins- you’ll feel every second of her pain, you will _bleed_ for having tried to cut her. At her best, she’s warm and nurturing, at her worst, she’s a vindictive torturer.

The Pale King, conversely, is clearly a scientist- not the empath and mystic the Radiance was. He was an experimental tinkerer- not merely facilitating the growth of natural beings but formulating hypotheses and observations of his environment. Developing artificial constructs. We see his domain- see it as chilly, operating-room sterile, armed and defending itself with a thousand different precise cutting implements. He’s Mind, but, he rejects both Heart and Will. When Radiance uses Heart to attack, the Pale King’s response is to try and live by cutting out the Heart- and speaking metaphorically, that left both him and the Pure Vessel bleeding to death. So at his best, the Pale King is a visionary, an inventor. At his worst, there’s the accusation the Hunter gives him on the description of the Wingmould- _did he care_? Can anyone tell if he did?

Personally, I think he did care, but viewed it as irresponsible of himself _to_ care- he pushed ahead with the creation of the Vessels, with Pure’s training and eventual sacrifice regardless, and then tried to force himself to stop grieving.

But Ghost?

Ghost is Will.

Ghost is cited as a “pure” being of the void, but they don’t lack emotions any more than Pure does. There’s really no way to explain much of the game except to say they’re driven dually by love for their siblings, Pure especially, and rage at what happened to them. Hornet, who’s the most accurate about what leads to the game’s endings- she outright tells you that you have a choice to face the Radiance directly- also at one point tells Ghost that they could win, “if you had the will.”

In his explanation to Pure, the Pale King states that Will is something the Vessels lack. But that’s preposterous. A creature that has no will merely operates according to pre-set instructions with no investment in them. Even if Pure does everything the King asks of them, it’s clear that Pure is not an automaton without investment- rather, they’re a _dutiful child_ , who loves their father, who wants to live up to this heavy burden of saving the kingdom, and who seems to have never questioned what they were told out of that desire to be the savior.

It’s Ghost who learns enough of Heart, and enough of Mind, and uses it insistently to investigate, to prod, to question, to try and _understand_. Its Ghost, who tends to focus most heavily on what people _want_ , what’s driving them, what do they feel?

Ultimately, Ghost still has this duality- at their best, they’re the most profoundly in tune with individuality. Unifying the Void under their command still has the distinct shades of Pure and of their other siblings; in the cutscene in Godhome after defeating the Pure Vessel, it’s not as if those children are gone, but, rather, they are coming along with Ghost now- much like what several of the Warrior Dreams state or imply.

At their worst, though? They’re hellbent on asserting their _own_ individuality, and they’ll take wild risks or tear into others to prove it. 

**Author's Note:**

> Analysis originally found here: <https://radioactivesupersonic.tumblr.com/post/183658322590/the-pale-king-was-a-very-complicated-guy-but-i>


End file.
